Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-01
humor. Presently he returned to the side

humor. Presently he returned to the side
IF the reporter.
"Tnat is fue part that Nicholson, the
heavy man, has got" said the comedian,
IN 3 melancholy, stomach grounded tone.
The cart Of the heavy man was most
detestsble one. He had secretly stabbed
brother of the heroine, plotted to throw
every appearance of guilt upon the hero,
and was seeking to have him hanged and
to run of with girl.
81 do not see how any man csn choose
& part like that" said the reporter.
'rYou don't!' said the comedian in
tone Of the greatest surprise. '''MY gra-
cious, man! the Hottest ambition OF my
life is to play part like that. Even when
heavy parts were not fashionable liked
them. But now that The Silver King
and half dozen such plays have made
them prominent, sny true actor would
give his head for one I"
"But," said the reporter, "the villain
of play gets no applause. Everybody
hates him. What is the satisfaction OF
producing revulsion in the minds Of the
psople2"
"Ah," said the low comedian, ".f you
can only do it well enough to make them
hiss you, that will be pay enough
Kisses are harder to bring than
applause. But even better than
that Is to be got II you do i,
we'll. not long ego Jack udl'y was
playing out west and was doing mag
niicent bit, where he had to take his man
unawares and kill him. Just as he WIS.,
on the point of st.bbIrg him man in the
gallery reared out: Look out, there;
look cut.' All, q triumph like that Is
worth anything TO an actor. But The
kind Of heavy part l would like is not
one Cf these society things, bat crawl
ing, creeping part in dark-dyed COM
plexion. one of these parts where you
crawl up TO man on your belly Nth
curved knife in your hand TO carve him
up in frenzy of dis holical rage
The villain OF the play had Joined the
comedian and the reporter and heard this
speech.
"Ah!" said he sadly, az don't know
about it. Sometimes it's not pleasant to
do this sort of thing. The other day l
Wss doing the villain in Lynwood,' and
mad Just got off heap Of lying in an
effort to. rid the world of my enemy,
when, as l walked to the f0otlights, saw
man glaring at me. When l reached
the corner beside the private box and
uuconsciousIy as he CARED at me. you
Id scoundrel, 1 could gee that he SAID,
as if ne hsd spoken the words. tell you
1t made me feel badly. Il broke me up
tor that act"
The reporter noticed some other
peculiar features of life behind the
scenes For instance, whenever the
L. aiding man YVES off and the villain was
on the leading man said thst the heavy
man was trying to mUnopol'zs the whole
play, that ne WAS always keeping i'm
self in the center and keeping the leading
lady showed Oh at one side, and that he
thought be was the whole play all by
msef. Whenever the heavy man was
and the leadiog man was on the heavy
man criticised the other in this way: "See
him w. He is playing that love bust
ness all on the left, and yesterday ne
PLAYED it on the light. He does no. care
how it muddles the company. All he
thinks OF is his own part, whereas, do
you know, think the heavy pMt is the
festure of this play! l would not take
any other part in the piece"
Thus the rehearsal went on. The only
imperturb,ble participant was the
prompter, who sat at the kitchen table
with the manuscript book. Whenever
ne was appealed to he read the parts
aloud, and always in hurried, mechani-
Cal wsy, as II there were no punctuation
marks in the lines and no
emotions behind them. Love
passages, angry alterations, flights of
ardent elCquence, sIl came from his lips
as like one another as peas in p0d-su
even toned, hurried and cOlorless. The
only diff renee between one part and an
other was that he took his cigar from his
mouth when he read to lady aud put il
il again for GAe men. Whenever scene
wss flushed he called for the actors in
loud voice, as if they were in another
building, or out in the street. While the
sectors addressed che another by their
right names; the prompter always gave
tuem the names of the characters they i'm
personated.
At the end of the rehearsal young
woman, not Of the company, but friend
OF the leading lady, walked on the stage
snd so angered the leading man that ne.
said "aamn" again sd MT you know
any bstter than 20 walk On the stage when
| e. rehearsal is on?" he inquired. 49,
The young lady replied that the leading
man was $40 gentleman" and that She
would go where she would be properly
treated.
"Edi" said the leading lady, in voice
of stern command, "go and kiss that lady
and apologize"
"I shall DO nothing of the sort" said
| the leading man.
kiss her, sir" said the lady. "Kiss
her or will follow her from this house"
"Oh, great heagens!" said the leading
man. What sils you? You are not
ususlly very anxious to have me kiss
other women"
Terrell.